It was getting more and more chaotic overseas, but that didn’t put a pause to things on my end. Especially when it came to school events.
What I’m saying is, our school’s sports festival was near.
Somebody help…
In my life, maybe the only times I could associate the term “Physical Education” with fun were when I did my “nighttime health and physical education” with Layla and Yukine.
I had always theorized that PE classes in elementary school were events designed to make kids who were good at sports become heroes, while the PE classes in junior high school onward were venues for those heroes to bask in the limelight.
With my current body, I could probably break world records, but well, that would mean coming out as an Awakened One, which in turn would lead to my social death. It would be one thing if I were already celebrated as one of those heroes I mentioned, but as it stood, I was guaranteed to be hated for being an unknown mob-face who wanted attention.
And so, it was for the best that I stayed with the unpopular group and cheered others instead.
“Let’s see. For safety reasons, it has been decided that Awakened Ones will be participating in the sports festival in their own separate division.”
The principal informed us so during a school assembly in the morning. I was shocked by it, quite frankly.
Awakened Ones participating in sports had always been put to the question all around the world, but now, after almost 2 years and 2 months since “The return of the age of gods”, it would seem the debate would extend to the high school level as well.
What was the big deal with a separate division where only Awakened Ones would compete, you ask? It was that I would be forced to out myself as an Awakened One!
As to be expected, the gymnasium grew louder. As the teachers warned the students to keep quiet, I broke out in a cold sweat.
My school life was over.
When I looked at my 2 friends, they looked like they were just as troubled as I was. And for a moment, the 3 of us shared one thought: what should we do?
* * *
“Erm, as mentioned in the assembly, Awakened Ones will be competing in their own division for the sports festival.”
The morning homeroom was canceled because of the assembly, so our homeroom teacher addressed us in the afternoon.
To no one’s surprise, the students were voicing out their dissatisfaction for the decision.
“But teach’, we’ve been practicing for the relay race with the assumption that we’ll have Aihara-kun—”
“Yeah, this is just so sudden. In the first place, who participates in what has already been decided—”
“I mean, isn’t this discrimination? Are you saying that our school is not treating its students equally?”
As far as my classmates were concerned, Awakened Ones=Aihara-kun, apparently.
He was “supposed” to be suspended for an incident with a girl, but it would seem like he continued to be among the class’s popular kids. The reason I said “supposed” was that he wasn’t suspended in the end. His parents had protested that decision and even considered taking legal action against the school. Or something like that, I didn’t really know.
As for why he was still popular…it had something to do with his looks, communication skills, and his personal connections outside of class. There was also that rumor about him being of so good-nature that he stopped the bullying happening in the class next door.
But above all, he was popular because being near an Awakened One, and an adventurer at that, was supposedly a big deal for high schoolers.
Getting back on topic though.
My classmates were raising complaints and a few of them took out their phones and pointed their cameras at the homeroom teacher. To that, the teacher hurried to give an explanation.
“I’m sure you guys have heard of that recent incident over at Aichi prefecture. The one about a 500 meter race.”
Oh yeah, there was that news.
If my memory was correct, in a school which held its sports festival earlier than ours, there was apparently a student who participated in said sports festival all while hiding the fact that they were an Awakened One.
For one reason or another, they got carried away and ran as fast as they could. Given that Awakened Ones could go as fast as 100 kilometers per hour even without having relevant superpowers, one might think that the Awakened One won and that was that, but that sadly wasn’t the case. The student Awakened One tried to turn a corner but spectacularly crashed into their class’s cheering spot. 3 of their classmates suffered serious injuries such as broken bones. About 10 students were also reported to have sustained light injuries.
As such, people began wondering again whether it was safe to have Awakened and non-Awakened Ones compete together.
By the way, world tournaments and such had reluctantly asked the Awakened athletes about a year in advance to reconsider their participation.
“To make sure those kinds of incidents won’t happen in our school too, we would need to adopt a wait-and-see approach for at least a year.”
That made sense.
To be completely frank, just the possibility of death tolls in a high school sports festival was absurd. Neither the potential victims or the potential offenders stood to gain much, and yet participation could very well ruin both parties’ lives in an instant.
Be that as it may, my classmates were still issuing complaints albeit somewhat sporadically now.
“Now now, everyone. Let’s all calm down”
Just as I predicted, Aihara-kun stood up and tried to pacify the class. And just like that, the class went quiet.
I was quiet to begin with but of course I kept being so. This was nothing more than a charade, but if I were to interrupt it, it would be my end socially.
“Let’s try to look at it from our teachers’ perspectives. Besides, I don’t want to put any of you in harm’s way. Let’s not worry ourselves with things like discrimination for now; let’s just focus on doing what we should do.”
He said so and then flashed his pearly whites.
Woah, what a handsome dude. Damn it.
“If you say so, Aihara-kun”
“Yeah, what Aihara-kun says”
“Can’t be helped, I guess”
Sporadically once again, our classmates voiced their agreement.
Aihara-kun nodded to them in response and then smiled at the homeroom teacher.
“Now, sir. Please continue”
“…s-sure”
The homeroom teacher was openly in a bad mood. Which was only natural given that Aihara-kun was propping himself up while also taking a dig at the teacher.
“Aihara-kun just pulled the teacher out of that tricky situation”. Would a classroom full of high schoolers be simple enough to be impressed like that? Well, the only thing I could say to that was that the microcosm known as schools were frightening places.
“Ah, given the suddenness of it all, don’t worry about who will participate on which event today. You can do that during tomorrow’s PE class. Now then, student on duty, if you will”
“Yes, sir. Alright, everyone stand and bow”
The student on duty led the class without a hint of enthusiasm in their voice. We followed along and that was the end of the day.
School might have ended, but for us, the main event of the day was just about to begin. Worse yet, we didn’t have much time to spare. As such, we fled the classroom as quickly as we could without giving away that we were Awakened Ones and began our preparations.
* * *
“Is this really necessary…?”
“Of course!”
Layla, with a troubled smile, asked so. She and the rest of the usual cast were in the usual park. As for Yukine, she was at home, helping out my mom. They had apparently gotten along in no time at all.
“Alright, let the meeting for Operation Fake Sickness begin!”
““Yeah!””
Kumai-kun led, and I and Uoyama-kun replied in agreement.
“…so, what should we do?”
“Right! How about I hit you two to break your bones, and you two break mine!?”
“Have you lost your marbles???”
“How stupid are you?”
“Thought you’d react as much”
It was nothing more than an intrusive thought, so it was naturally shut down. As expected, of course.
“So, seriously, what should we do to get a pass for the sports festival?”
“Never mind the day of the sports festival, we’ll be outed as Awakened Ones as soon as tomorrow when the class decides the distribution for the events.”
“I guess we have no choice but to cancel the whole sports festival itself…”
“Ahm…”
While the 3 of us were at our wits’ ends, Layla raised her hand.
“Could you not just do as usual and pretend like you are non-Awakened Ones? That’ll solve the issue, won’t it?”
“We can’t, Layla. Not this time.”
“Why? What reason can there be?”
“You see, we don’t really expect to be able to hide fact that we’re Awakened Ones during our 3 years of high school.”
We were often visiting dungeons, after all. Obviously, we try to go to dungeons far from our school, but it was only a matter of time before we got exposed. We were definitely going to try our best to keep this secret and maybe there might even be some miracle that would allow us to pull through, but it was just better to plan for the worst case scenario.
“And when we do get exposed, people might berate us, saying things like ‘oh, so you lied back then and purposefully put us in danger. You’re the worst’. That scares me, frankly.”
“A life as an outcast is inevitable, huh…”
“I don’t want to be bullied in high school too…”
We couldn’t afford to have more things that could be used against us. The more justified people were, the crueler their persecution tended to be. Of course, there were plenty of people in this world who would bully others even for shitty reasons.
“Huh…then, should we just blow up the sports grounds?”
“Yes, that’s it!”
““No, that is NOT it!””
Uoyama-kun had an expression like he just heard a grand revelation.
When Kumai-kun and I furiously shook our heads, the two mages looked at us confused.
We’re the ones who should be baffled like that!
“Won’t it fine as long as nobody finds out that it was us?”
“Uhh, no? We have these things called ethics and laws, you know?”
“I mean, if we don’t get caught, how do those matter?”
“Just no, ok!?”
Are you sure you’re alright, Uoyama-kun!? Why would say such a thing!? …no, I think he has been like this ever since our first year of junior high. Maybe he has been always like this even. Or maybe not. I’m not really sure anymore.
“Master!”
“You too, Layla. This joke—”
“How about we dig a 10-diameter hole in the field?”
“How about no?”
She isn’t joking, is she?
“The field is for everyone to use, yeah? And it took a lot of money and effort to make, not to mention to maintain as well, right? So, it won’t do for us to destroy it so thoughtlessly, ok?”
“We’re safe as long as we don’t get caught though…?”
“Maybe, but I believe ethics and such are important things to have in a human society.”
“In that case, it can’t be helped!”
Thankfully, she seemed to be convinced.
“We have to come up with a plan to deal with this today”
“Yup. No way is that enough time.”
“Yeah. Well, how about we use magic and carve a threatening letter into the school building? Like, cancel the event or else”
“We might get caught by security cameras though. How about we bribe the principal instead?”
“You two should just stop.”
“This is no time to joke, so enough with that, seriously.”
…I said so but I secretly thought to myself “that seems plausible”.
* * *
In the end, we were unable to come up with any actually good plan and had to settle with what Layla first proposed: to keep pretending like we weren’t Awakened Ones. This was pretty much waiting for a bomb to blow up on our faces, but what else could we do?
…it won’t be good for my savings but maybe I should decrease how often I go to dungeons.
“Mhm?”
That evening, while I was lost in my thoughts in front of my untouched homework, my phone began to ring.
“Togo-san?”
I was confused by the named that my phone displayed but I answered the call nonetheless.
“Hello, Okawa speaking.”
<<Hey, sorry for calling this late. It’s Togo.>>
“It’s alright; I wasn’t really doing anything anyway.”
Well, if I had to be honest, I could have been doing something. Layla had offered to give me some “physical education” but I declined on account of my homework. But anyway…
<<Is that so? Truth is, I called in regards to that suspicious person we talked about the other day.>>
“…ahh, that fake nun Hanazono Karen”
I could never forget that person. Her face and figure were great, but what really stood out about her was her “pressure”. I felt she was even stronger than that Minotaur.
<<I heard that the police had given her more or less a warning about her activities. Sorry but that’s pretty much all they could do. It’s hard for the police to interfere with any religious activity—even this—plus she hasn’t been too unreasonable in her solicitations.>>
“I see…no, that’s good enough, thanks.”
It did feel disappointing that a warning was all they could do, but since it was the law that limited their actions, I just thought there was nothing else to be done.
Were I to run into her again, I should probably just run away while shouting at the top of my lungs. I might lose in terms of raw strength, but I might stand a chance in terms of running speed.
<<I’m relieved to hear you say that…now that that’s over, may I ask why you sound down? Is there something troubling you?>>
“Ahh…no, it’s nothing to bother you about.”
<<Haha. Think of it as my apology for not being of much help. So, how about it? Just venting it out should make you feel better, you know.>>
“…I’ll take you up on that offer then.”
Convinced by Togo-san’s kind voice, I let the tea spill. Well, this wasn’t something I should hide from him anyway.
<<I see. A way prevent being the target of bullying in school>>
“Yeah. This must sound so pathetic, right? Sorry.”
<<Oh, not at all. You being a worried about things like this just shows you’re a good kid with the willingness to be part of a community. That said, people like that are also the type to lose out in life.>>
I laughed wryly at Togo-san’s words.
Personally, when he said that such people were the type to lose out in life, I thought of Ogata-san. I didn’t want to live my life in hard mode.
<<Hrm…I’ll try talking with the Board of Education and other school-related bodies. Taking heed of young Awakened Ones’ troubles is part of my work in the Dungeon Countermeasures Department, after all.>>
“Eh, ahm, no, you don’t have to make a big deal out of it.”
<<Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything exclusively for your sake, Kyotaro-kun. I’m sure there are other young Awakened Ones facing similar troubles. I intend to help all of you. I might go about it clumsily though>>
A laugh escaped from me in reaction to Togo-san joke at the end.
“Haha, I see. Then, I’ll be looking forward to it.”
<<Oh my, what a heavy responsibility I have. But yes, count on me. I’ll do my best as an adult. Well then, I guess we should end it here. Good night, Kyotaro-kun.>>
“Yes, good night to you too, Togo-san.”
After ending the call, I breathed out a sigh. Just like he said, simply talking about it to another person helped.
It’ll be alright, somehow. Push comes to shove, I’ll just stop coming to school, or maybe transfer. And if any of that do come to pass, I’ll probably be with my friends, so there’s nothing to fear. For now, I should worry about this homework…
* * *
The next day. During homeroom in the morning.
“Err, the Board of Education has suggested that forcing students to reveal whether they’re Awakened Ones or not might possibly lead to discrimination and bullying. As such, for at least this year, participation in the school’s sports festival isn’t compulsory.”
Slurring his words so awfully, the homeroom teacher told the class so.
“That is to say, if you don’t want to participate, whether you’re an Awakened One or not, you don’t have to participate. You’ll be discussing this among other things concerning the events of the sports festival in your PE class, so direct your questions to your PE teacher instead.”
As the class grew noisy, a bead of sweat ran down my face.
Togo-san, what did you do?
I called him as soon as I got home, but all he told me was: “they were already considering it to begin with, so all I had to do was give them the extra push”
Thank you, thank you!
* * *
POV: Togo Miyokichi (real name: Saionji Yasuo)
“Phew…”
It was night time. I was having a smoke in the smoking area of a cafe near the prefectural office. Today was…another tiring day.
For a little while, I let myself stare blankly at the frosted glass window. Of course, I couldn’t see what was happening outside, but I couldn’t help but look out due to habit.
And for some reason, memories of my student days came to me.
<<Yasuo! Let’s go build a secret base in the mountain!>>
“Kuku…”
I chuckled but then internally panicked. Reminiscing like this was going make me look like weird person.
We were already in high school back then, but that idiot still said stuff like that.
I looked at the lighter I used for my current smoke and remembered my friend. I could remember his words just fine, but I sadly could no longer recall his voice. If magic truly existed now in the world, then perhaps one day, I could once more…
“What a horrible way to grow old”
I snubbed out my cigarette, which had gotten short before I knew it, into my portable ash tray. Because of the nature of my work, I had developed a habit of not using the ash trays provided by the establishments I visit.
While I was doing so, a knock came.
The smoking area for this cafe was closed off by a glass wall. I had heard that it was built this way, but since this was my first actually being here, I was a bit startled by the knock. I slightly raised my hand at the young man who knocked, and we moved to the non-smoking section.
“Sorry for making you wait.”
“Don’t worry about it. My special talent is that I actually enjoy being in standby.”
A waiter came by and we ordered 2 cups of coffee. Afterward, I leaned back in my seat. This shop was on “our side”, so I could relax here. For that, I was quite grateful.
“Here are the documents you requested.”
“Thank you, as always.”
“Please, you’re the one always helping me. I’m just returning the favor”
What I was handed were internal documents of a certain magazine publisher.
I immediately gave it a once over…and dear me. Wiretapping, sneak photography, trespassing, blackmail, forgery, and many more. I was actually quite impressed by how far this publisher was willing to go.
Their most recent focus was snooping around Ogata Yune. Talk about her had been dying down lately, but that was probably all the more reason these scum were coming out now.
“We’ll handle the cleanup. Thanks again.”
“Of course. But man, I’m just glad no foreigner was involved in all of this.”
“They’re still busy, I bet. The personnel they could send abroad are likely competing for control of key locations.”
Who did it was still not known, but the whereabouts of the “rats” in Japan were leaked. As such, the shadows of Japan were in quite a bit of turmoil and would probably be like that for some time. Thanks to that though, we were able to move a bit more freely.
“By the way, Togo-san. Don’t you think you overdid it on you-know-what?”
“Hmm? What makes you say that? It wasn’t ideal, but it’s still an improvement, no?”
“But that student might misunderstand, you know. He might think whatever he asks of you will come true.”
I chuckled upon hearing the young man’s question.
“Don’t worry. He isn’t that childish, or enough of an adult to be already morally bankrupt. For better or for worse, he’s just a teenage boy.”
“I…see…?”
“Even if he does become a bit self-indulgent, he’ll still be within the realms of what we can easily manipulate. Besides, it IS absurd for there to be casualties because of a sports festival of all things, don’t you agree?”
I watched for his reaction as I took a sip of my coffee. He was tilting his head as though trying to process what I said.
“Oh well, we can’t have him throwing a tantrum anyway.”
…ahh, him too, huh.
“Tantrum? Oh no, not a tantrum. There will be chaos on par with a terrorist attack.”
“A t-terrorist attack?”
He should have been more used to hearing that term than your average citizen and yet he looked shocked to hear it be mentioned.
“It’s going to be like the mass shootings in America, only with tank-levels of firepower. And it won’t only be him. If even half of the student Awakened Ones across Japan rampaged, how much damage do you think that will cause to our country?”
“Err…”
Thankfully, he seemed to have understood this much. I would really rather not have another “personnel change”.
“Moreover, that you-know-what as you put it should serve as a good precedent for other schools to follow. In fact, I believe some schools are already doing something like it.”
The number of people who understood how truly frightening Awakened Ones could be was baffling. When it came to students, one might say it was waste of effort to even expect them to understand. Just the other day, there was a report about students bullying an Awakened One student. It was resolved peacefully thanks to the Awakened student transferring schools, but even a little bit of delay on that transfer could have led to a catastrophe.
Those who would bully Awakened Ones were glorifying the law in a distorted way. They were holding on to the idea that the first to resort to violence would be the ones in the wrong. They think that even if the Awakened One were to retaliate against their bullying, they would be protected by the law by simply playing the victim. They would go so far as to willfully ignore or at least downplay their own wrongdoings even in court.
I wouldn’t say this train of thought was necessarily wrong, but…I doubted those people considered how much damage an Awakened One with nothing else to lose could do.
Awakened Ones were weapons in human form. I was of that opinion, at least. They had personalities, families, and social sensibilities, thus we interacted with them like they were humans. But make no mistake, they were dangerous beings. It was only because Awakened Ones as a whole weren’t full aware of their own power that things were still calm. But then, what if these oppressed Awakened Ones suddenly thought “hmm, I could do whatever I want”? Would their voice of reason then cease to work?
…ahh, no. Here I go again, assuming the worst. It doesn’t help that today I forced the Board of Education to act and also gave a “scolding” to some bullies. Man, I’m so tired. Honestly, I just wanna go home right now.
“…Minister Arikawa mentioned something about having a school exclusively for Awakened Ones. That sure sounds like a good idea right now.”
The young man muttered so.
“Right, I’ve heard that too…honestly, I don’t think it’s the best solution but it might just be what needs to be done.”
It was certainly the simplest solution but, well, it was segregation. Naturally, there were all sorts of headaches that would sprout from that. Prejudices might become reinforced and fights between fellow Awakened Ones might increase, just to name a few. If we were unlucky enough, a group of Awakened Ones with antisocial ideologies might even form.
I could think more problems even on the spot, but whether or not a school exclusively for Awakened Ones was a necessity, I couldn’t say one way or the other. I didn’t like being so unsure.
“I suppose we better prepare for it just in case.”
“Right?”
“Ah, you mind if change the subject?”
“No, go ahead?”
I slightly tilted my cup toward the young man. I could only refer to him as “young man” since I didn’t know his real name. Of course, he didn’t know mine as well.
“When you go to the parking lot, do a quick sweep of your car.”
“Huh?”
“This might be our home turf, so to speak, but don’t forget: always conduct yourself as though you’re on a battlefield.”
“…!”
Seriously. You’re too relaxed, man.
Foreign agents might be busy keeping each other in check, but that didn’t mean they would be so careless to let us do whatever we wanted.
In this behind-the-scenes battle between Japan and foreign forces, our nation was miserably outclassed.
“You can save your worrying for when you get to the parking lot. I have asked some colleagues to watch over our surroundings.”
I took my phone out from my breast pocket and waved it around. Seeing that, the young man let his shoulders slump and his head droop.
“I’m sorry, I…”
“It’s fine. Everybody makes mistakes. It just so happened that I was able to cover for you this time. Just make sure you learn from this.”
I smiled to reassure him.
Hahaha, I definitely won’t let you get away from me, rookie. I’ll go train you so that I won’t get assigned that Karen Hanazono case! So, go, be good at your job!
Showing appreciation, admonishing, praising, scolding, recognizing, and who knows what else, that idiot friend of mine was so much better at those things. So why did he leave these to me and passed away? What a headache, that idiot.
…but a few days later, I heard that the young man had quit the Hanazono Karen case. My boss glared at me as he told me so.
Haa…what a shitty world.
Taroppe-sensei(author)’s Q&A corner
Thank you for reading!
Also, please consider leaving some of your thoughts, a review, and bookmark the title over at the narou site (https://ncode.syosetu.com/n7336ie/)
Your support is appreciated and I hope you continue doing so.
Q: How long has Kyotaro been friends with Uoyama and Kumai?
A: They each went to a different elementary school, but they have been together from the very first year of junior high school. They bonded over being their class’s leftovers.
Q: How have the three been attending their PE class before?
A: When they have to run, they do so by running at the same pace as the student next to them. During football or baseball, they try to blend with the benches.
Q: Is there any room for growth for Awakened Ones?
A: When it comes to quantifiable growth, there is really not much aside from aging. Being a child or an elderly would decrease the effect of one’s stats. That said, there isn’t much change going from your early teens to the age of sixty. In other words, aside from being “juvenile” and being “elderly”, Awakened Ones are always at their prime.
Strength training doesn’t really help. It won’t help someone reach the next rank in a stat. At the very best, it can make a stat have the “+” symbol maybe but even that is extremely hard to achieve.
Implanting a Magic Tool in one’s body can make a difference but that is less “growth” and more of a modification.
As to be expected, the best growth an Awakened One can have are those that couldn’t be quantified. Things like improving one’s skill at things or their judgment. To paint a picture, if Kyotaro in chapter 1 and the current Kyotaro fought, the current Kyotaro would win no question.
In the end, one’s qualities as an Awakened One do improve.
Someday far into the future, maybe lineage can improve Awakened Ones too…?
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